Human Endurance
People have experienced all kinds of hostile environments and pushed beyond the limits of the body to not only survive but triumph. Sports and health psychologist, Lydia Ievleva, says that it is difficult to define what makes an ordinary person able to master their pain and push beyond limits. “We like to think of it from a psychological perspective as mind over body. Like even when people are completely tired somehow they manage to find some extra reserves.”
She says that some people might suggest that it comes down to a soul, or a spiritual level. “Or they might refer to it as heart. Even the word courage comes from heart, because the root of the word is 'cour' which means heart.” She says that is widely believed that people are able to tap into something that seems to be beyond the body. But they can only do so if the pursuit is meaningful to them.
Activities:
- Write a story about someone surviving on a chocolate bar in a snow cave for a week.
- Make up a class endurance test. For example most sit ups, step ups, fastest 100m sprint, etc.
- Make a Human Endurance Fact File, e.g. a person can submerge to …. metres, the highest humans can climb without oxygen tanks is...
- Look at the weather page. How long do you think someone could survive in the hottest and coldest places without special equipment or shelter?
- Write a scenario for a human endurance reality TV show or documentary.
- Describe the conditions ice trekkers face which challenge their survival? List the equipment they take to meet these conditions.
- Conduct a media search to investigate human endurance and extreme sports events. Write a calendar of events for the next 12 months.
- Write a dream script about participating in an endurance event.
- What would be the ultimate fear factor event for you? For example if you don't like small spaces then canyoning or cave diving would have the greatest fear factor. Select 10 events or sports and give them your personal survival and fear factor rating out of 10. Compare the class results. List the fears the class hold in common.
- Write the confessions of a self-confessed endurance junkie. Draw an annotated characterization, e.g. no toes due to frostbite, bulging eyes due to pressure, etc
- Design a roller coaster that takes riders through a variety of G-forces (they need to survive) and make a poster to advertise your endurance ride.
- How would you redesign the human body for greater endurance? Describe or draw your ideal human.
Websites
Super People- Feeling Pressured
http://www.pbs.org/saf/1102/teaching/teaching.htm
A look at what pressure, high and low, does to the human body.
Ask a High Energy Astronomer
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970603.html
Answers the question “how long can a human live unprotected in space?”. The answer might surprise you and change the way write sci-fi stories.
The Human Body Has No Limits
www.tamu.edu/univrel/aggiedaily/news/stories/00/063000-5.html
Alternative link: http://pc.parnu.ee/~kat3z/6piobjektid/Reading%20II/reading_task_13.html
An intriguing article from an interview with Dr. Jack Wilmore, head of the Department of Health and Kinesiology at Texas A&M University.
He suggests that records will continue to fall in sport because we do not know what the limits of the body are.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (US)- Extreme Heat
http://www.fema.gov/hazard/heat/heat_aid.shtm
What happens to the body under conditions of extreme heat.
US National Weather Service- Heat Wave
http://www.weather.gov/om/heat/index.shtml#safety
Some pointers on what heat does to the body and steps to take to prevent injury or to treat those affected by extreme heat.
Adventure Sports Online- Hypothermia
www.adventuresports.com/asap/ski/skihypo.htm
Looks at heat loss in the snow and in the water and what you can do to prevent them.
Hypothermia - Physiology, Signs, Symptoms and Treatment Considerations
Posted by the Search and Rescue Society of British Columbia this is a pretty in depth look at the problem of human heat loss and how to treat it.
Guinness World Records
Look up some of the extremes that humans have been to and survived.
Altitude Sickness
http://www.altitude.org/altitude_sickness.php
A look at what happens to people at heights of over 2,400 metres and how altitude sickness can be prevented.
Outdoor Action guide to high altitude
http://www.princeton.edu/~oa/safety/altitude.html
Outlines what happens to the body at altitude and tells how to acclimatize and endure high altitudes without it killing you.
Spaceflight Now- Test Subjects Wanted for hyper-gravity experiment
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0203/25centrifuge/
An article on NASA's quest to find willing test subjects to test human tolerances of extended periods subjected to g-forces.
Student suggestion
http://www.dialcomfort.com/an-education-in-heating-air-conditioning-heat-wave-dangers.html
A "heat wave dangers" link suggested by Elizabeth Owens and her students at Pine Mountain Central School District in the USA.
Books
Epic: Stories of Survival from the world's highest peaks
Edited by Clint Willis
Some of the best writings ever on mountaineering, and the extremes to which climbers have subjected themselves (LandsdownePress).
Become A Human Body Explorer
By Dawson Paul
An look at this amazing machine and how it works, a good framework of knowledge for knowing how it can endure extremes (Dorling Kindersley).
DK Guide to the Human Body: A Photographic Journey Through the Human Body
By Richard Walker
Using computer-enhanced three-dimensional pictures, this book explores the complex internal world of the human body. In different sections of the book, the processes involved in moving, breathing, digesting food producing babies, growing, & fighting off disease are explained (Dorling Kindersley).
Explorer: DK Eyewitness Guides
By Rupert Matthews
A catalogue of some of the amazing things that human beings have been able to do as a result of pushing their bodies and minds to extremes (Dorling Kindersley).
Human Body: Eyewitness Guides
By Steve Parker
Since ancient times, people have sought to understand the structure & function of the human body. This book traces the ongoing quest by scientists & physicians to understand the complex, intricate nature of our living form (Dorling Kindersley).
Survival
By Stuart Diver
On 30 July 1997 a landslide swept away two ski lodges at Thredbo burying 19 people under tonnes of debris. Skiing instructor Stuart Diver was the only suvivor, enduring freezing conditions buried underground for 65 hours. This book shows how his background and attitude to life gave him the mental and physical strength to survive the tragedy (Pan Macmillan).
Deep Descent
By Kevin F. McMurray
McMuray describes his diving expeditions to the wreck of the Andrea Doria and profiles the extreme scuba divers who push themselves beyond the limits of recreational divers to reach this ultimate deepwater wreck challenge (Simon and Schuster).
Last Breath: Cautionary Tales from the Limits of Human Endurance
By Peter Stark
In a fascinating blend of adventure and science, Stark recreates in heart-stopping detail what happens to our bodies and minds in the last moments of life when an extreme adventure goes awry (Ballantine Books).
Endurance
By Alred Lansing
In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton and a crew of 27 set sail for Antarctica, aiming to cross the continent overland. The ship became trapped, then crushed, by ice and, for five months, Shackleton and his men survived in one of the most savage regions on Earth. This is their story (Wiedenfield and Nicholson).
Life at the Extremes
By Frances Ashcroft
How do people survive extremes of heat, cold, depth and height? For the geneticist, inheritance is all. But for the physiologist, extremism is all. This book explores the limits to human survival and the physiological adaptations which enable us to exist under extreme conditions (Flamingo HarperCollins).
SAS Desert Survival
By Barry Davies
As well as a section on basic survival techniques relevant to any hostile environment, this guide, based on SAS training and techniques, offers specific details pertinent to survival in desert areas. Drawing on practical, first-hand knowledge, the entries are arranged in order of survival priority (Virgin Books).